Farming of Coimcall. 
435 
crop (o be barley or oats, and laid down -nitli grass seeds), and to dress 
(manure) the same with lOObutl loads of mixings,* consisting of farm- 
yard manure, the scrapings of roads and ditches, and sea-sand. 
" Or SO bushels of -well-burnt lime, mixed with a proper quantity of 
earth, on each and every acre so broken as aforesaid. 
" Or not to lime oftener than once in nine years,t as a substitute for 
other manures." 
That restrictions as to management of an estate are necessary 
no one can deny, but they should be so framed that, while the 
tenant is prevented from doing injury, he should not be so fettered 
as to prevent improvement, which is actually the case in the 
clauses we have mentioned. For hence arises the miserable 
system of breaking and burning the land, and taking two white 
crops in succession, with the latter of which it is sown down again 
with common rye-grass and clover, producing a " lay," poor in 
the extreme — half-pasture, half- weeds ; and in v\ hich state it is 
compelled to remain by the lease (one-fifth of the land only 
being permitted to be broken once in three years), to the detri- 
ment of the farmer, the landlord, and the country at large. 
Again, what can be more ridiculous than compelling a tenant to 
take so many loads of ditch earth, or sand, or lime, under all 
circumstances ? This part of the business should be left to the 
farmer, who, instead of paying 1007. per annum for lime, or 20/. 
per annum for the carriage of sea-sand, might prefer investing his 
money in dung, bone, or guano. 
54. The whole range of the British proverbs — those axiomis of 
the concentrated wisdom of a nation — does not include one more 
profoundly true than this : — What should be everybody's busi- 
ness is nobody's;" and this will apply justly to those who are 
deeply interested in the improvement of the Cornish soils — the 
lords of the soil — who frequently suffer their estates to be 
managed in a most injurious manner; and instead of making an 
attempt to prevent it, actually perpetuate this svstem by indenture. 
'I'here is a remedy for the evil ; one that I do not propose in a 
hasty reliance on my own judgment, but after observation, reflec- 
tion, and communication with some of the ablest farmers and 
of the principal landlords in the county — that a tenant should, in 
every instance, unless icith pej-mission, be restricted from taking two 
corn crops in succession, whilst in every other respect, and w here it 
can be effected without injury to the rights of the landlord, I would 
recommend the carrying out of the system as much as possible 
* Ten loads of farm-yard dung, 8 ditto of the scrapings of roads, or any 
other heavy stuff, 10 or 12 loads of sea sand, ditch earth, q. s. to make 
CO or 80 loads per acre. 
t Some of our landlords are of opinion (and very justly too) that lime 
is too often applied instead of other manures. 
